Hey and welcome to this past month’s blog income report. For many of you that follow me on social media, you know that May was a CRAZY busy month for me. I spent a majority of the month finalizing the details of my wedding, putting together decorations and also attending another wedding. Even though the blog didn’t get all of my undivided attention, it still generated income. If you’re new here, this is my third income report for the blog. I published my first report in March and plan on creating these reports as long as income is coming through the door.
If you’re new here, I decided to start publishing these reports for a few reasons:
- To be as transparent as possible with my blog’s growth and my sources of income;
- To allow me to track my blog’s progress; and
- To show ya’ll that it’s possible to make money blogging.
Although I started my blog in August 2016, I didn’t actually begin trying to generate income from it until December 2017 for a few reasons:
- I wasn’t confident enough in my writing and I still suffer from imposter syndrome from time to time!
I’ve never been confident in my writing skills and have always dreaded writing anything other than my name; hence why I studied finance and not English! I never thought I’d even get one reader to the sight let alone thousands.
- I didn’t know it was possible to generate income from blogging
I initially began blogging as a way to document my journey and teach others what I was learning along the way. I had no clue people actually made money blogging! Come to find out, there are plenty of awesome full-time personal finance bloggers out there sharing their stories as well. But in the beginning, I wasn’t aware of all the opportunities (monetary and nonmonetary) that came along with running a blog, so the possibility of making a little extra money didn’t cross my mind.
- I wasn’t consistent with my content and sometimes I’m still not
Prior to December 2017, I didn’t take posting content or developing my blog seriously. I didn’t look at it as a viable business opportunity even though I was spending money to run it (hosting services, email accounts, etc.). I took notice of a few personal finance bloggers that were making thousands of dollars while helping a ton of people in the process, and it started to motivate me the more I read about their story. So, I created a plan to create consistency with posting content, and not only for the purpose of generating income, but more so to stick with something I created and see it through to success.
How much have I made so far?
When I first decided to monetize and eventually publish a report, I told my twitter followers that I would create one once I hit my first $100. Well, I hit $100 mark and then some over the course of four months, so I went ahead and combined all my earnings from Dec to March to produce my first report. I’m happy to announce that I have now suppressed the $1,000 mark:insert freaking out yelling face from so much excitement:, keep reading for all the details.
A quick recap of the awesome things that happened in MAY:
- I won a spot in the “Win Your Way to FinCon” blog contest sponsored by Center for Financial Services and Innovation (“CFSI”) for #FinHealthMattersDay!!!!!!!!! FinCon for those of you that don’t know is a big, if not the largest, personal finance conference in the U.S. Personal finance peeps from all spend 4 days geeking out about all things money related. This will be my first ever FinCon and I’m suppppper pumped about it. Check out the post that helped me win a spot to travel to FinCon for FREE!
- My first digital product is still going strong and has had over 100 downloads. More updates are on their way (DEBT ATTACK PACK). It’s the same tool I used to pay off $38,000 of debt and is still the same tool I use to budget and save money.
- I have finally made it below the $10K mark on my last student loan. Woot woot!
- I had my first ever guest post on Millennial Money Man. My post actually went live on the site in April but I forget to include it in my April recap so here it is – “5 Reasons Why Tinder and Budgeting Are Basically the Same Thing”. This was a big deal for me because I’ve learned so much from Millennial Money Man about blogging through his income reports. He is also another reason why I started posting my own! Last month he made close to $60k from his blog, I’m hoping to make that much one day.
- Oh and we planned the perfect wedding 🙂 but we technically didn’t get married in May so I will recap the wedding in my June report.
I’m super excited for what this year has to bring for my blog, and I’m looking forward to sharing my story along the way. So, without further ado here’s May 2018 income report! Thanks for reading!
April 2018 Income Report
Affiliate Income
- Amazon Affiliate – $0.00
- BlueHost- $65.00
- Google AdSense – $4.69
- Haven Life Insurance – $0.00
Digital Products
- Debt Attack Pack -$147.00
Sponsorships – $0.00
Miscellaneous – $0.00
TOTAL: $216.69
Some of the affiliate programs require that you reach a certain amount before the funds are released so not all the income listed above has been paid out yet.
Social Media Stats
End of April
- Twitter Followers: 566
- Youtube: 29
- Instagram Following: 4714
- Facebook Likes: 433
- Pinterest: 66
End of May
- Twitter Followers: 645 (+79)
- Youtube: 71 (+ 42)
- Instagram Following: 5406 (+692)
- Facebook Likes: 470 (+ 37)
- Pinterest: 75 (+ 9)
Debt
When I started this journey in 2016, I had approximately $57,000 of debt. I don’t know an exact number because I wasn’t tracking as good as I am now. I didn’t keep it all in one place until I developed a method that worked for me (The Debt Attack Pack).
My debt consisted of:
- Student Loans
- Medical Bills
- Car
- Credit Cards
Debt Remaining: $9,374 (Down -$749 from April)
I’m super excited and proud of the progress I’ve been able to make so far. I didn’t think I’d even have one reader and now thousands of people visit this site each month to read the content I’m creating. It’s a pretty cool concept if you step back and think about it. I’ve been able to create something out of nothing, connect with hundreds of people, and help change lives in the process. I say that’s pretty dope.
Past Income Reports
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Lawrence Cain, Jr. says
This was a great post! Thanks for your transparency and leadership. In the June report can we get a money quote for keepsake for the following month?